A subscription to iRacing and using a good wheel/pedal setup will give you a lot of insight to high speeds in a track environment. I practiced VIR a lot on my computer and it helped immensely my first time out on track. Granted, the closest car iRacing has available to the FiST was a race prepped Volkswagen Jetta TDI, but it worked well. My instructor didn't say much to me...I believe I scared the crap out of him because I drove better/faster than he did in his Focus ST.
It really depends on the track configuration as to what you need to do with brakes. I bought a set of Hawk DTC-60 pads and 2 bottles of Torque RT700. I removed the dust shields from the front brakes and installed the pads at the track. I retained all stock hardware/pads for the rear brakes. I also made sure to turn ESC completely off each session. The brakes worked great on track until I really started pushing hard on the 2nd day. A couple times I felt a tiny bit of fade but nothing too terrible, luckily it happened at the minor braking area. VIR has basically two major braking points, 3 medium braking points and one minor. I believe this configuration helped the DTC-60 pads work with stock rotors and no extra cooling. It may be a completely different experience on a track with more braking points.
Engine cooling might be important, too. Depending on the ambient temp, running the stock tune would go a long way helping with coolant temps. Yes, not as fun but the FiST is still great fun in stock form, especially the first time out on track. If you have an aftermarket oil cooler or upgraded radiator this may not be much of an issue. When I ran at VIR it was a fairly mild weekend, low 70s and sunny. I ran the stock tune and had no issues with cooling.